PHP string casting

LeSighTest.php

<?php

final class FuckYouPHPTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase {
    /** @test */
    public function should_fail () {
        new WantsAString(new NotAString());
        // Fails as expected
    }

    /** @test */
    public function casting_like_were_still_in_the_PHP4_era () {
        new WantsAString(new Stringable());
        // Silently casts to string. It's consistent with the traditions of the
        // PHP forefathers, but it is stupid nonetheless and leads to errors.
    }

}

final class WantsAString {
    private $mustBeString;
    public function __construct (string $mustBeString) {
        $this->mustBeString = $mustBeString;
    }
}

final class NotAString {}

final class Stringable {
    public function __toString () {
        return "I was casted from Stringable";
    }
}

"Hey, about this awesome new feature that we just introduced into the language... Can we find a way to make it unusable?"

This is to keep libraries backwards compatible when upgrading to 7.x.

if you want this behaviour add the following to your file.

declare(strict_types=1);

For more documentation see: http://php.net/manual/en/functions.arguments.php#functions.arguments.type-declaration.strict

Thanks, just found that out.

It's silly though, because if you typehint on string, it is not backwards compatible and the declare thing won't make a difference.